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Conflict and climate

“Conflicts cause deaths and injuries. They also disrupt the social, political and economic organization of societies, aggravate disparities and erode development. In protracted conflicts, the persistence of such disruption often leaves indelible marks on people and societies.

“Climate risks and environmental degradation only make matters worse. The convergence of climate risks and conflict further worsens food and economic insecurity and health disparities, limits access to essential services, while weakening the capacity of governments, institutions and societies to provide support.

“The impact of this overlap is not only wide-ranging; it is also far-reaching. Ripple effects can shape mobility, patterns of transhumance [livestock migration] or access to resources on a continental scale.” (When Rain Turn to Dust, ICRC, 2020)

The Climate Centre is supporting the ICRC and expanding its work to address the humanitarian impacts of climate change to include situations of conflict, as well as investing further on advancing research on this topic.

For more information, contact Catalina Jaime (jaime@climatecentre.org)

Key documents

> When Rain Turns to Dust, ICRC
> Climate change and conflict, ICRC
> The Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations

Climate and conflict: regional and country fact sheets
Publications

Climate and conflict: regional and country fact sheets

This series of climate fact sheets for countries affected by armed conflict, presents key information about current climate in each country. The fact sheets include projections, policy and climate related impacts across sectors such as water and habitat, economy, security, protection, health and policy. They have been supported by the ICRC.

Read more

Current projects

  1. ICRC cooperation
  2. World Bank, diagnosing drivers of climate and environmental fragility in Burundi’s communes, climate and conflict risks
  3. National Societies, anticipatory action in situations of conflict.
Climate and conflict research agenda

Anticipation Hub

Climate change and weather related disasters are already affecting risks globally. People in areas of conflict are often particularly vulnerable to changing threats, as well as shocks and stresses.

The anticipatory action approach has largely been developed to prevent or mitigate the impact of hydrometeorological hazards in peacetime, but there is a clear need to further explore the value of anticipatory action in conflict settings.

Anticipation Hub
Interactive

Screening programmes for climate risk

Our screening process for operations identifies climate risks, and gaps, as well as opportunities for climate action at operational and institutional level, through collaboration between the ICRC and the Climate Centre. So far 35 delegations have participated – the largest baseline operational analysis of its kind by a humanitarian organization; 25 delegations have now developed climate action plans, including a road map of priority measures.

Sudan
Screening programmes for climate risk
Virtual workshop

Anticipatory action in conflict settings

Implementing anticipatory action for climate-related impacts against the backdrop violence and conflict poses specific challenges, and there is a need to provide information on developing best practice and existing lessons learned in the real world.

An online workshop in January 2023 facilitated by the Climate Centre explored the limitations and opportunities of anticipatory action in this context, complemented by a variety of resources and case studies and connected to existing tools available on the Anticipation Hub.

A overview of the issue was provided by the Climate Centre’s Catalina Jaime; it also included as presenters OCHA’s Seth Caldwell, Kim Kristensen from the FAO, and the Climate Centre’s Evan Easton-Calabria, who spoke on anticipatory action in refugee and IDP camps.

The ICRC view